IsoBuster 4.3 Released!

December 18, 2018

I'm happy to announce the release of IsoBuster 4.3.

This version features full support for the XFS file system. Exploring, extracting, finding missing files and folders etc.

Also new in this version is the support for brand new file extensions *.1Kn, *.2Kn, *.4Kn, *.8Kn and so on (instead of the generic *.dsk for instance). The naming convention has been inspired by the "Advanced Format (4K native)". Basically when IsoBuster now creates a generic block per block image file of a drive that natively contains more than 512 bytes per block, it uses the appropriate extensions: *.1Kn - *.64Kn.

In practice (because I haven't seen any other situation) you will encounter this on 4Kn drives (4096 bytes per block: *.4Kn) and Plasmon UDO2 drives (8192 bytes per block: *.8Kn). The beauty is that now any application immediately knows what the correct sector size is inside the generic image. IsoBuster's heuristic routines to determine the sector size by itself are unparalleled, and improved once again in this version, so IsoBuster doesn't really need it, but it will make life easier for everyone and it's ideal for images that contain data that doesn't 100% correlate to a specific sector size.

Global adoption of this straightforward extension naming convention will be a step forward dealing with generic more-than-512-bytes-sector image files.

But that is not all. As usual there are plenty of improvements, a few fixes and other new functionality, such as dealing with RAID and LVM data structures, WBFS and so on.

Changes / New:

Full support for the XFS file system

Recognition and support for RAID 1 structures inside a partition, to find the file systems within

Recognition and support for LVM (Linux' Logical Volume Manager) inside a partition, to find the file systems within

WBFS partition support. Shows what images are stored in a WBFS partition

Open *.wbfs files and show the images that are stored in the file

Full support for 8KB (8192 bytes-per-block) devices such as Plasmon UDO2 drive etc.

Introduction and use of *.1Kn, *.2Kn, *.4Kn, *.8Kn, ... file extensions for disk images of drives with higher than 512 bytes per sector

Improvements:

Improved detection of the proper block size in image files based on partition and file system data

Create a UDF File system when we have a valid VRS, AVDP and VDS. Even when the FSD is absent. So that the user knows there's at least UDF present

Make sure the UDF VRS sequence also works on higher-than-2K-sectors when VRS structures are located in their own physical block rather than every 2K (For instance: Plasmon UDO2 drive with 30GB UDO disk vs. MS UDF on 4KN drives)

Open Image file drop functionality now also works when a file is dropped on the ListView (right pane) or breadcrumb control (top)

Implemented work-around to still load FAT (on USB sticks for instance) when the first x bytes of the BPB have been erased (by an unknown process / application)

Support format *.s01 again (disabled in previous version) after extensive testing to confirm that it works

Show "Managed Clone", not just "Managed Image File" where and when relevant. Changes in various screens and dialogues

Repaint TreeView icons if hovered over, to update the object's status (should it have been expanded already during a different process (e.g. Search))

*.dd images are now always treated as 'not optical' (to avoid loading as optical (tracks / sessions) if nothing meaningful can be found inside)

Please tell people about it, like it in FaceBook, share it via FaceBook or via Twitter, post it on forums etc. Stuff like that is really appreciated. Start with clicking the FaceBook "Like" button all the way below, in the bottom right corner.